Making Homeschooling Hands-On, Engaging, Meaningful & Memorable! Be inspired by all the possibilities!! Check out our unit studies, packets and printables!
I took the camera out to captures some snow scenes out in our yard and the woods behind our house. It was peaceful and very pretty! Better to focus on that than tomorrow’s surgery, right?! These photos must tickle my friends who are having 80, 90 and 100 degree temperatures right now, right?!
Language Arts: Writing / Science: Biology Unit / Science: Biomes; Animal Habitats
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 17, 2014 · Last modified September 12, 2017
The kids are starting on another independent research project. Last semester the kids did a biography research project, but this semester they are doing a portfolio project. That’s just a fancy way of saying… a bit of this and a bit of that. They’ll do both non-fiction and fiction writing selections, art projects, geography and habitat projects. And they’ll also watch a number of videos and/or movies. You’ll get a...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 14, 2014 · Last modified February 29, 2016
This activity was a huge hit with ED last year. I chose some words from ED’s phonics readers and wrote them out on some shamrocks and taped them on popcycle sticks. I covered an empty cereal box with construction paper and wrote the words out on the box as well and used a knife to create a slit for the popcycle sticks. I sat with ED each time she did...
Holiday: St. Patrick's Day / Kindergarten / Kindergarten Math / Math General Posts
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 13, 2014 · Last modified February 17, 2016
ED is working on number words this week. These are some St. Patrick’s Day sheets I made for her. I thought I would share them with you. Just click on the link below: St Patricks Day Numeral and Number Words Activities There are four pages. The first sheet is a numeral-word matching page. The second is skip-counting page. The other two sheets are board games. ED rolled a number and...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Homeschool Den / Montessori (general info) / Science / Science: Vertebrates - Invertebrates
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 12, 2014 · Last modified November 2, 2022
Animals and their Characteristics – The 5 Animal Groups These free pages are down below! Last week my daughter worked on vertebrates and invertebrates. From there she started working on the 5 animal groups. I also wanted to go over the characteristics of the various vertebrate animal groups with her. As she sorted the animal groups we talked about some of the characteristics of each group… fish and amphibians lay...
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Toddler/Preschool Activities / Holiday: St. Patrick's Day
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 11, 2014 · Last modified March 1, 2016
There are such wonderful resources out there for those of you planning to do some St. Patrick’s Day activities with your kids. Here are some of the free St. Patrick’s Day units and printables I’ve come across: 2 Teaching Mommies: St. Patrick’s Day Preschool Pack; St. Patrick’s Day Kindergarten Extension Pack St. Patrick’s Day Play dough Activities at Living Montessori Now: Irish-themed letters (lower and upper case), numbers (0-20) and phonics cards...
Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Writing
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 10, 2014 · Last modified March 18, 2016
This was one of the best mini lessons we’ve had on writing. The kids still talk about how much they enjoyed sharing their memories and writing about them. They’ve asked me when we can do this again. I call that a successful day! If you’ve missed the previous posts in this series, I would suggest you go back and start with them, though honestly, you can do any of these...
Freebies / Holiday: St. Patrick's Day / Math--Division
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 9, 2014 · Last modified March 1, 2017
I made this division board game for my older two to review their math facts. They saw the addition games I made for ED and wanted one of their own! I thought I would share that here for anyone else might be interested in playing this with their kids! St. Patrick’s Day is Monday, March 17 this year. Download the free St. Patrick’s Day Division Board Game: Other Free St....
Freebies / Holiday: St. Patrick's Day / Math General Posts / Math--Multiplication
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 8, 2014 · Last modified March 1, 2017
Here are some multiplication pages I made for DD when she was working on memorizing her multiplication facts last year. I put together a number of different practice pages. There are 8 pages. As always, it is free to download. St Patricks Day Multiplication Pack Other Free St. Patrick’s Day Materials: St. Patrick’s Day Addition Game Boards St. Patrick’s Day Multiplication Pack St. Patrick’s Day Division Game Board and Division...
Freebies / Holiday: St. Patrick's Day / Kindergarten Math / Math General Posts / Math--Addition
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 7, 2014 · Last modified March 1, 2017
St. Patrick’s Day is coming up Monday, March 17th. I’ve made a number of math activities to get into the spirit! Today I’m sharing some game boards that I made for my daughter to practice some of her addition facts. There are three different game boards. One to practice making 9 (4+5, 6+3), one for making 14 (10+4, 7+&) and one for making 15 (7+8, etc.). There’s also a blank...
Homeschool Den / Language Arts: Writing
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 6, 2014 · Last modified March 18, 2016
Day 4: Story Openings–Set the mood or feeling of your story You’ve set up a good writing space, have your supplies – pencils, journals, resource materials. Now what?!! This is the second in a series of 5 posts with lesson ideas to help young writers get started on their writing journey. Be sure to read the introduction to this series in last Monday’s post, Day 1. Here are some of our first mini-lesson topics....
Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Preschool for ED - Fall 2011 (age 3 1/2) / Freebies / Homeschool Den / Montessori (general info) / Science: Vertebrates - Invertebrates
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 5, 2014 · Last modified July 3, 2020
It is animal week for my youngest daughter. We’ve been touching on vertebrates and invertebrates since the kids were little, but I wanted to go back and make sure ED really knew the characteristics of these groups and how animals are classified. First, we went over the difference between Vertebrates and Invertebrates again. We brought out our model frog skeleton again for a closer look! Then she went over the...
Homeschool Den / Homeschool Encouragement / Homeschool: Interviews with other Homeschoolers
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 4, 2014 · Last modified April 16, 2015
My friend’s daughter wrote a blog post about homeschooling and they generously offered to let me post it here. I loved her piece and I hope you do too! My mom thought it would be helpful for me to give my perspective on homeschooling. Being an eleven-year-old homeschool student has some good things and some bad things. Good things: -I can sleep until nine every day! No getting up early...
by Liesl - Homeschool Den · Published March 3, 2014 · Last modified May 15, 2016
Day 3: Creating Interesting Characters You’ve set up a good writing space, have your supplies – pencils, journals, resource materials. Now what?!! This is the second in a series of 5 posts with lesson ideas to help young writers get started on their writing journey. Be sure to read the introduction to this series in last Monday’s post, Day 1. Here are some of our first mini-lesson topics. I used mentor texts and picked...
Do you believe education can be exciting, inspiring, and full of joy? We do too!
I love the quote by William Butler Yeats, "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." It's about getting the kids involved, engaged, and fired up about learning (while juggling the rest of life too!)
A bit about me: I have my Master's from Brown University. I have more than 20 years of teaching experience. I was a high school teacher for many years both in the U.S. and internationally and also taught for the University of Maryland before leaving to homeschool my 3 wonderful kids.
To read more about us CLICK HERE.
Click on the image to find out more about the units and packets we have available.
This post has links to dozens of posts and resources both for new and veteran homeschoolers for everything from finding homeschool curriculum to general homeschool advice and encouragement.
Click on the image above to see the History Units we covered in our homeschool.
What science topics could I teach my 5-7 year old - Homeschool Science Curriculum
Click on the image above to see the Science Units we covered in our homeschool from elementary through middle school (and beyond!).
A list of the books we've used most in history, science, math, language arts, etc.
Click the image to check out our packets on Earth Science, Rocks and Minerals, the Atmosphere, Weather, Energy and More!
Units are also sold separately.
This is one of our most popular units. It covers the Layers of the Earth, Plate Tectonics, Earthquakes, Volcanoes and More! It is included in the Earth Science Bundle (see the picture/link above).
Click the image to see our Biology Units on Animal and Plant Cells; the Biology Unit on Biomes, Food Chains, Symbiosis; Scientific Classification & Taxonomy (Domain/Kingdom/Phylum/Class, etc.); Botany - Plant Kingdom and Oceans and Oceanography.
Click on the image to see our Animal Bundle - including the Animal Unit, Life Cycles, the Rainforest, Winter (Polar Animals) & Hibernation, Chameleons, Wolves, Cicadas and more!
The Human Body Systems, Skeletal, Digestive, Circulatory, Muscular, Nervous, Endocrine Systems and More (with lots of hands-on activity ideas)! We usually study a different body system each year.
Click on the image to see our units on the States of matter, Properties of Matter, Electricity & Circuits, and the Chemistry Unit (Get to know the Periodic Table in a fun way!)
This is a free checklist I put together of the various science units I hope to cover in the elementary and middle school years.
Do your kids know the 4 largest countries? Which countries have the most people? The longest river? This packet covers basic world and U.S. facts and also covers geographic features and land forms.
Click on the image to check out our 100-page unit on World War I.
We have used AAS for 6 years! AAS is an affiliate link.
Dozens of posts about how to create a homeschool writing workshop.
Click on the image to check out all of our fun K-2 Math Packets.
This is one of the best values we have... more than 20 PDFs with games, activities and worksheets to learn/practice the multiplication facts ($7.00).
Click on the image to discover some of the pages, posts and homeschool resources within our blog that might be the most useful for you including a long list of our freebies!
Click on the image to check out our 100+page Rocks and Minerals Unit.
This is a fun, hands-on unit for early elementary students!
How the body is organized from cells to tissues... organs to body systems
Click on the image to check out some of the Spanish worksheet bundles we have available!
Click on the image above to check out our German worksheets.
Click on the image to find out more about our units and packets.
